I'm 27 and save hundreds of pounds on London rent by home sharing with an elderly lady - it saved me from loneliness

Maria Matei, 27, lives with an elderly lady in her eighties to save money on rentThe pair have formed an intergenerational friendship and even cook together READ MORE: Stress of renting ages you TWICE as quick as being unemployed

With the prices of renting a flat in London getting more and more expensive, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for young people to find themselves a home in the capital.

Maria Matei, 27, has lived in the city for eight years and is currently studying at University – however, last year she feared she would have to drop out due to rising costs.

She was struggling to pay for both rent and her education and was grappling with where to turn.

But she now pays just £180 per month for her accommodation, as she moved in with an elderly lady in her eighties, after signing up to Share and Care – a home-sharing website, which is part of the HomeShare Association.

Not only has she saved huge amounts of cash, but she has also made a new friend in the process, which she described as the ‘companionship’ she needed, after suffering with loneliness during the pandemic.

Maria Matei, 27, has lived in the city for eight years and is currently studying at University – however last year, she feared she would have to drop out due to rising costs

Maria told MailOnline: ‘I was looking for a cheap place to live because I needed to finish my university degree, and all of the prices went up, so I couldn’t really find a place to live and be able to pay rent if I wanted to also continue my studies.

‘I would have had to work too much. I had also been incredibly lonely during the pandemic. People know it was lonely, but I really felt it and it really affected my mental health’.

She stumbled across the idea of home sharing with an older person on a spare room advertisement.

The 27-year-old explained: ‘I always look for the cheapest ones. It said this is a home share, and you’ll sharing with an older person who might need a bit of help and companionship.

‘I saw it, and I thought, oh my God! I need a little bit of companionship’.

After a thorough application process including interviews and a DBS check, Maria was set up with a lady in South East London.

She revealed: ‘They asked a lot about what I was interested in, and they said they wanted to make sure that they match people who are really alike.

‘Wow, yeah, just thinking back to that – I thought I can get along with anyone, but actually, I don’t think I could have found a a better match than the lady I live with.

Not only has Maria saved huge amounts of cash, but she has also made a new friend in the process, which she described as the ‘companionship’ she needed, after suffering with loneliness during the pandemic

‘I’m doing my masters in architecture and they found someone who had been an architect, and at first I thought it might be some snotty architect, because we we tend to be like that.

‘Really, she’s just the most feminist, open minded, easygoing person ever and we’ve got the same social values.

‘She did a bit of painting and drawing which obviously comes with being an architect, and I do load of painting and drawing, and she has loads of friends, I have loads of friends’.

Maria gushed: ‘They couldn’t have found better people to to live together’.

Despite being more than 50 years apart in age, the pair get on like a house on fire and have formed an intergenerational friendship, often cooking together and spending time socially within the house.

Although, the student is keen to stress that the relationship is mutually beneficial and she is no way a carer to her companion.

She explained: ‘Sometimes older people can be a bit reluctant because they think it’s it’s something else and they will lose independence, especially because the word care is used.

‘And you know, you do care for each other, but not in the sense of being a carer. It’s just someone who also needs housing, so it’s help both ways’.

Adding: ‘I’ve always shared my home, but always with people who are similar to my age, and people who are very busy, and I had always been very busy.

Maria now pays just £180 per month for her accommodation, as she moved in with an elderly lady in her eighties, after signing up to Share and Care – a home-sharing website

‘I never had enough time to spend with the people that I lived with and that’s something that I really missed badly during the pandemic.

‘Even when I go out I sort of have it on my mind that there’s someone home who is probably thinking, ‘oh, is Maria getting home early tonight?’ And obviously she always knows when I come back.

‘It’s just nice to know that someone’s waiting for you for dinner, and it’s nice that when I can’t decide what to eat, I just ask her, ‘what are you into today?’ And then we sort of decide’.

The women also watch TV together in the evenings and spend a lot of time together working in the same room.

Maria said: ‘It’s that feeling that you only ever get with family, that you just both very close people in the same space, minding your own business.

‘I don’t know if that’s the case with all the shares, and people are very different, but to me that it just feels like, wow, I found the right place and person’.

The financial aspects have also been life changing for the student, as a part time job around her studies ‘simply would have not covered’ rent.

She said: ‘I have friends who work full time, and they pay 50% of their wages on rent. I have a friend, and she lives in a seven bedroom house with no living room.

‘Everyone talks about it and it’s a very real thing. This has allowed me to just have time to continue my studies and have a bit of time to spend with people again.

‘Now I’m due to get a job, I’ll probably be able to save money  because I’ve never been able to save money before.

‘You can’t really find anything under £600 per month within zone three of London, that’s anything decent, and it goes up to £1,000 a month which is just outrageous.

The women also watch TV together in the evenings and spend a lot of time together working in the same room

‘If you’re on minimum wage all of your money goes there and you never get to save. I was always in a little bit of debt at the end of the month of my credit card’.

The 27-year-old hasn’t been asked to pay bills yet as it depends on the circumstances, but the home owners are allowed to ask for up to £60 from their younger sharers.

She said: ‘Each household would figure out their own way but me and the lady I live with shop together because we mostly eat together.

‘Because I’m home most of the time,  we share at least one, if not two meals a day. So when we buy things we just buy them for the house and just split the money, and I’ve been saving so much because usually I just eat alone.

‘Before, I sometimes didn’t feel like cooking in a crowded kitchen, so I’d just end up getting takeaway. So I’m saving so much money on food as well’.

Maria continued: ‘She’s always asking me how my day was and we talk in a lot of detail because I speak about how my uni work is and she used to be a tutor as well.

‘We can have proper conversations, but if I need a moment to myself she won’t ask more questions.

‘She was like me, alone a lot of the time and eating dinner alone in the evenings. She would snack because she didn’t feel like preparing a big meal when she was alone.

‘She enjoys knowing that there’s someone around the house. Recently she needed to go to hospital because she was very ill and I think she was very grateful to have someone around.

‘Otherwise, it might have been that no one would have noticed that she was ill for a very long time, and it would have gotten much, much worse. I was very happy to be able to help’.

Maria described the Share and Care scheme as a ‘lifesaver’ for her and she thinks it could be for many other students or young adults in a similar situation.

She said: ‘If you’re beginning your career and you have that time to give and you could benefit from having someone around you, you could be matched with someone’.

The average age of a sharer is 39, with the average householders being 84 – providing some extra support for them to remain living independently in their own home.

Meanwhile, the average length of a homeshare match is between nine and 15 months, with the longest current match in its 10th year.

While the average age of a sharer is 39, the Homeshare Association’s data reveals the oldest sharer is 70 and the youngest 22.

Amanda Clarke, Director at Share and Care Homeshare, said: ‘Share and Care Homeshare has arranged hundreds of matches over the years, and we hope that through celebrating the impact of homeshare, it will inspire more people, across different generations, to step forward and join a homeshare arrangement.

‘This way of living is mutually beneficial, it’s a circle of support in which younger and older people both make a valuable contribution and benefit enormously.

‘Strong, meaningful connections are built which really makes a difference to people’s lives’.